Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Beef Jerky and Secret Planets

March 1, 2015: Week 19Area: Hirosaki

Companion: Dowdy Choro and Canapari Choro

Matthew that if his date is who I think it is, she is really cute. Our week was super tiring and crazy, but the good part it.......we hit the standard of excellence! We taught 21 lessons! It was pretty hard and we were riding our bikes all over the place at the speed of light, but we did it! I'll now tell you what happened.

On Tuesday, we started the day visiting the member who is breaking a ton of commandments but I don't think he's realized it yet. Instead of chastising him about commandments, we decided to talk about the blessings he's received from the gospel. We all shared the blessings we have realized from the gospel. It was pretty good. After that, we visited an old woman that Dowdy Choro met on splits. We talked to her for a while about God and her beliefs. She was really nice, but wasn't really interested. She said a couple of way weird things though. She told us when she looks at us she sees Jesus. We thought that was kinda cool, but then she told us when she was young back in the day, she had "a lot of fun of guys when she was young." That was pretty awkward, little bit funny. Anyway...

The next day, we went to go visit our investigator from Ghana. We rode a while to his house and we tried knocking on his door, but no one answered. Right as were about to leave, he came to the door wearing a Muslim Toga or robe or something. He said he was doing one of his daily prayers. He invited us in while he finished praying. So we sat there in awkward silence while he recited his prayers. After he finished, we shared the restoration. After I recited the first vision, the spirit entered the room. Every time we share the restoration that happens. It's pretty cool. After we finished, he asked us some questions and told us about his beliefs. It was good; hopefully he will gain some interest in the gospel. After his lesson, we rode way fast to another investigator's house. She is an old woman, so we as elders can't teach her in her house, only in the Genkan. We had one of the members to come join with us, but she ended up talking the entire time for like an hour so it was kind of a disaster. Oh well.

Thursday, Canepari Choro had splits with the Zone Leaders so it was just me and Dowdy Choro for a day again. We taught our Japanese grandpa about repentance. We showed him a Mormon message about God's love for us; it definitely invited the spirit. We don't really know exactly what he needs to get over the hump, but every time he reads in the scriptures, he tells us it makes sense and that it will make him a better person. After his lesson, we didn't have a ton of time to dendo cause we had another appointment we had to go to that night, so we decided to hurry to visit one of our PIs who works at a store. We went into his store and he was blasting Def Leppard over the speakers. It was fantastic, I love that band. We talked to him for a little bit but he's not interested in the gospel that much which is too bad.

The next day was filled with appointments too. We were tired all of the time cause we were everywhere all week. We went to go visit our friend who is the Kendo Sensei. We were sitting in his house and were about to start a lesson when his friend came over. After that, we couldn't really bring up the gospel.

Now for the highlight of the week. We were going to teach one of our referrals Saturday night. Hanada Kyodai brought his friend to the church to have a lesson. And let me tell ya, if this guy isn't a good example of why not to do drugs, I don't know what is. Holy Crap this dude was fried. Basically a vegetable. And he smelled like beef jerky and some weird drug. He was telling us his beliefs and they were crazy. He said he reads a bunch of Science Fiction books and that is where his beliefs come from. He pulled out this paper giving a diagram on where we came from and where we are going. Apparently, Africans came from reptiles, and after we die, we go to a secret planet that is hidden behind the sun which no one knows about. It was probably the weirdest experience I've ever had. It was hilarious though. After the lesson, me and other two were just dying of how crazy that dude was. Don't do drugs.

Last night, we went to the Fujita family's house. They are so nice. They have three daughters who are absolutely hilarious. It was a pretty fun night.

Well those were the highlights of our very busy week. It was tiring and difficult, but we did accomplish our goal. We actually rewarded ourselves by going to that burger place for lunch today..

The food looked great at the party!! I had gyoza the other day, I'm sure yours was better; mine wasn't that good. That is kinda crazy in all of the sports news. I would have never thought Lone Peak would lose in the first couple rounds. Layton is a pretty good team though so props to them. It's crazy to think that its already been a year since the state tournament. I think a lot about those days and how much I miss it. I'm very grateful I was able to have those experiences. I'm very grateful for this one as well.

Dad, thanks for the excerpt from that letter, 'cause I'm gonna be honest, this is pretty hard. The level of inadequacy that I feel sometimes is pretty high. The thing I heard before my mission was right; it will exceed your expectations. It will be harder than you think, but more rewarding than you think. I still feel inadequate in the language a lot of the time, but there are way awesome moments too and a lot more awesome moments to come. Like you said, just relax, breathe it in, and have faith.

It was great to hear from you guys! I hope you all of a great week. You are all in my prayers. Love you!